


Danny Phantom and the Supernatural Town

by Frog_that_writes



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Ghost Langauge, I love this show, I try to update at least once a month though, Just a retelling of danny phantom where ectoplasm makes the world spooky, Loosely Follows Canon, Retelling, Sporadic Updates, Tucker has fangs, ghost speak
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-09-07 03:02:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20302372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frog_that_writes/pseuds/Frog_that_writes
Summary: Roads that only appear on Tuesdays, lights that flicker no matter how many times the bulbs are changed, and strange entities always fought off by a young ghost boy. Welcome to Amity Park.





	1. Goin' Ghost- oh shit what?

**Author's Note:**

> Do people still read fics for this fandom? I hope so

_ “C’mon Danny, wouldn’t it be cool to be able to be the first person to greet an entire new world?” Sam’s voice was barely able to be made out over the repeated clicking of her camera, a polaroid she had gotten when she started insisting it was more fun than her phones built in camera. _ _   
_ _ “I don’t know Sam, if my mom and dad couldn’t get it to work why should I be able to?” _

_ “Please,” Tucker snorted. “No offense, but your parents are idiots.” _

_ “Hey!” _

_ “Danny, when’s the last time they even remembered to make you and Jazz dinner?” Sam reasoned. _

_ “Okay, fair. Still doesn’t mean I should blindly walk into the gates of hell.” _

_ “Danny, it's a portal to the underworld, stop being dramatic.” She sighed. _

_ “While I’m all in favor of Danny going in there, I will admit that ‘portal to the underworld’ and ‘gates to hell’ are practically the same thing.” _

_ Sam shot them both a look. “Okay, are you too going to keep wussing out? Because I’m going to go home and waste my weekend on tumblr if nothing interesting is going to happen.” _

_ “Gasp, Sam, are you saying you only come to my house for the freak show? I’m hurt.” _

_ “Yeah yeah, get your ass in that portal Fenton.” Sam interrupted his attempt at saying ‘fine’ by ripping the decal of his dad of the chest of his hazard suit. “Here. We don’t want the ghosts first impression of humanity to be  _ that. _ ”  _

_ “Thanks.” Danny said with a shaky smile. And with a brave sigh he placed his first foot into the portal. Then the next. Then the next. And suddenly he was giving a real smile for Sam as she took photos of him doing triumphant posies. Until he slipt over that dumb wire. _

_ Suddenly he felt his hand connect with something protruding from the wall through his glove. And then there was a siren and bliding flashing red lights.  _

_ “Danny!” Sam’s scream wasn’t necessary, he was already running like hell out of that portal. Then he tripped on that dumb wire  _ again.

_ He was sprawled on the ground, the siren drowning out the sound of his friends shouts when the portal fired up. _

_ Then, his own screaming was drowning everything out. _

_ He couldn’t focus on his throat going raw from screaming, because the only thing he felt was every atom of his body being caught on fire. Or at least, that’s what it felt like.  _

_ Even though he was in an immense amount of pain, he still realized he was being electrocuted. And he vaguely remembered his parents telling him the voltage this thing was being powered by. And that there was no way he was going to survive this. _

_ So he laid there, screaming over the yelling of his concerned friends in agony as his molecular structure was rearranged.  _

* * *

Danny woke from his nightmare with a start. His chest heaved heavily as he blindly grasped for his phone and scanned it for the time. 6:12. He let out a soft groan as he flopped back down onto his pillows. He wasn’t even going to bother trying to fall back asleep tonight. Maybe he’d take the extra 30 minutes to actually take a shower this morning. It might wake him up more. Plus he hadn’t really had the energy to do it lately, and even though his friends were too polite to say it, he stunk. Okay, they weren’t actually polite, more like guilty. No one could ever describe Sam Manson as polite. 

Showering and getting dressed done with, he checked the time again and sighed noticing it was still only 6:30, and remembering that he didn’t have to leave until 7. Maybe he could actually make breakfast today. His stomach growled happily at the thought. Man, healing from being electrocuted made you surprisingly hungry.

* * *

“Danny?” Jazz called hesitantly at seeing him in the kitchen. “Are you… making breakfast?”

“No, Jazz I’m standing over a pan of eggs on the stove at 6:45 in the morning because it’s a hobby of mine.” He replied sarcastically. 

“You don't have to be snarky,” She said with a sniff. But then her face softened.

“Hey, what are you making that face for? I made some for you too you know.” For some reason that just seemed to make it worse.

“Danny…”

“What? What’s wrong? Shit Jazz, it's just fried eggs.”

“Danny you just haven’t really been the same since the portal. It's really nice to see you actually showering and eating breakfast.” Jazz still looked like she was going to cry, but at least she was smiling now.

“Yeah, okay. Just take your eggs Jazz.” He mumbled.

* * *

Danny had missed school for one full week after the portal accident. His parents thought it was a miracle. The ghost portal powering up, not him surviving. They thought that was pretty nice, though. 

He hadn’t gone to the hospital, his parents were more than well equipped to handle an electrocuted teenager, and he was pretty thankful for that. He didn’t mind them as much as Tucker did, but hospitals did make him uneasy. Still, it did make his teachers mad that he had missed school for a week and didn’t even have any sort of medical form or doctor’s note to back up that he had been electrocuted. The scars running up and down his legs and arms were apparently enough proof though, because they didn’t make much of a fuss about it after he showed them. They had actually been pretty easy on him in the fews day he’s been back. Mr. Lancer even actually told Dash off when he saw the football player shove him into a locker. Danny had no idea how long it was going to last, but he was going to appreciate it while it did. 

So, it was a relatively cheerful Danny that created his friends and the point where all of their paths to school connected. 

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” Sam laughed.

“I don’t know, can’t a guy be happy for once?” Danny grinned back.

“Well, yeah a normal guy can, but you were literally just electrocuted to death a week ago.” Tucker snorted. 

“I told you guys,” Danny said “I didn’t die.”

“Yeah sure, you’re not a ghost and Sam’s not a vampire.” 

“I’m not a vampire though?” Sam said confused.

“One day you two will stop trying to hide your status as supernatural entities from me, and I cannot wait to go on rad adventures as your trusty human sidekick.” Tucker sighed.

* * *

The school day was fine, Danny dropped a few beakers in science and tripped a lot, but that’s nerve damage for you. He was still resolutely telling himself it was nerve damage, and the fact that his hands seemed to disappear for that split second before the beaker fell, or that it felt like he was falling into rather than onto the floor meant nothing. Well, up until he walked through the vending machine on his way towards the door after the final bell had rung. Then his friends stopped accepting that. 

“Danny, seriously, I think something weird happened to you when that portal turned on. We need to try and figure out exactly what it is!” Sam whispered fervently as she pulled him in the direction of her house.

“C’mon guys, you’re just seeing things.”

“Danny, listen. We all know there’s no way you should have survived that.” Tucker said seriously. He cut Danny off as he started to argue. “What did you say the portal was again? 1,000 volts?”

“1,250.” Danny whispered back.

“And at what voltage do most electricity related deaths occur?” While this might not have been general knowledge for most people, Danny had grown up with a lab in his basement and scientists as parents. Stuff like this came as naturally to him as breathing.

“200.”

“Yeah, I think this is more than just a case of your guardian angel deciding to intervene. Something happened when you pressed that button, Danny. And we’re going to find out.” Sam said resolutely. 

* * *

“So, this is your way of finding out what happened to me?” Danny asked as he dodged another crumpled ball of paper. He was in Sam’s room surrounded by the little balls.

“Danny! Stop dodging! We need to see if you can get the paper to go  _ through  _ you.” Sam yelled, throwing another.

“Yeah and how exactly is that supposed to work again?”

“All we know is that for some reason, you somehow managed to make yourself intangible today and walk through a vending machine. And if we’re correct, you’ve been doing that every time you’ve dropped something ever since you went into the portal.” Tucker said.

“And now we’re trying to replicate that. So just like, focus on the idea of the paper going through you or something.”

So Danny did. He closed his eyes with a sigh and felt his friend repeatedly throwing paper balls at him and tried to focus on getting them to stop. He tried to imagine them no longer connecting with his body and suddenly he no longer felt anything. He opened his eyes after a few seconds and saw the balls hovering an inch or so away from him, surrounded in a green glow. He had seen that exact shade enough to recognize it as ectoplasm green. He let out a gasp of surprise and the paper feel, the glow disappearing along with the levitation.

“Okay…” Sam said weakly. “Not exactly what we were going for but it's something.”

“Yeah.” Tucker agreed. “Something.” 

Danny, for his part, couldn't find it in himself to say anything.

* * *

“So, what does this mean?” Danny questioned after they all sat down on Sam’s bed, Danny feeling exceptionally drained and Tucker and Sam definitely needing to sit down after having witnessed their best friend harness green energy to stop their paper ball attack.

“Maybe the portal infused ectoplasm in you?” Sam suggested.

“That would make sense…” I’ve been around ectoplasm a lot, probably even eaten plenty of it, but I think I remember helping my parents with a theory about how it takes some sort of power to activate the ectoplasm. Thermal energy or electricity would probably be the easiest examples. It’s basically the whole principle behind how the portal works.”

“Maybe you’re half ghost now.” Tucker snorted.

“Yeah, catch me transforming into my ghost-sona guys. I’ll have a catchphrase too. Goin’ ghost!” His friends didn’t even have time to laugh as the room was suddenly overtaken by a flash of blinding white light.

“Oh my god.” Sam and Tucker muttered at the same time. “Danny you…” 

“What? What’s wrong?” Sam wordlessly pulled out her phone and gave it to Danny with the camera open. The person on the screen looked nothing like him.

His hair was a dull white, and his body was so pale the soft green glow around him stood out starkly. His nasa t shirt and jeans had been replaced by the hazmat suit he had been wearing when he went into the portal, but the colors were reversed. But what stood out the most were his eyes.

They were glowing such a bright ecto green that it was hard to look at them, even through the phone screen, for more than a few moments at a time. He realized that green glow around him was actually coming from them and not just his body in general. They looked kinda terrifying in all honesty.

“Well,” Danny said. “As far as ghost-sonas go I guess this isn’t to bad?” And with another flash of blinding light he was back to normal. And exhausted. He passed out before he could answer any of his friends questions


	2. Spooky powers for a spooky boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kinda short, sorry. The next few are long again tho

The town of Amity Park had always been a bit… weird. Sometimes, it felt like the path to school took a few minutes longer to walk than usual for no discernible reason. Once, the entire town had woken up feeling lighter, somehow. Children playing had seemed to hang in the air for a moment with every jump, and adults found themselves moving heavy objects with abnormal ease. It was common to hear the beginnings of a thunderstorm rumbling and see the skies turning dark but never feel a drop of rain. It was odd, but most of the townspeople had lived there their whole lives and barely noticed. People who moved in either got used to it quickly or they moved out, already trying to forget the odd chill of the town and it’s abnormalities. 

Lately, it had gotten worse. 

Sometimes, you would blink, and for half a second the sky was green. People who knew these streets like the back of their hand found themselves getting lost in a seemingly unfamiliar part of town, until they realized they had reached their destination is less time than the trip should have taken.

And the thunderstorms were starting to rumble with an intensity while the clouds still refused to pour. Which is why Danny barely noticed the noise that seemed to shake the surface he was lying on. It felt softer than his bed, which was odd. What was odder was the voice buried under the thunder that he thought might be talking to him.

"-ake up! Danny? C'mon dude you have to wake up!" He opened his eyes, and saw Tucker’s face a few inches in front of him. “Oh hey, look who finally opened his eyes!” He called, and Danny saw Sam, who had been peering outside her bedroom door, turn around and smile at him.

“Wha-what happened?” He asked. It was slowly coming back to him, something about paper balls and powers and- oh. He had transformed into  _ something.  _ “Please tell me that was some weird dream?” He begged his friends hopefully. Sam’s smile widened while Tucker just shook his head sadly. 

“Sorry dude. No dice.”

“Look on the bright side! You can get a cool alter ego name. I’m thinking Ghost Boy,” Sam mused. “Or maybe Half-Life? It’s a science thing, figured you’d appreciate it.” She got a groan from Danny for her efforts. 

“I can’t believe any of this,” he muttered. “I really died, didn’t I_?” _

“Well, we don’t know if you actually died or if you just got some ghost powers from the accident,” Tucker said comfortingly. “I know it doesn’t really help, but you’re alive right now. Heartbeat, breathing, all that shit. That’s human, baby!”

“What would you know about humans?” Sam asked playfully, scooping her cat up from outside her door and bringing her inside to come sit on her bed with her friends. “With how much time you spend around technology, I’d be surprised if you remembered humans have DNA and not code.”

“Haha,” Tucker said flatly. “You’re just jealous I can form real bonds with my technology.” Danny took Sam’s cat from her before she half-heartedly shoved him.

“Uh-oh, Bat,” Danny whispered to the little black furball in his lap. “I think Mommy and Daddy are fighting again.”

“I still can’t believe you gave such an adorable creature the name Bat,” Tucker said, getting distracted from what was likely to be a speech about how humans tendency to pack bond with technology not being weird.

“You’re always saying I’m a vampire, I thought it would be fitting.”

“But cats are a witch thing!” Tucker argued. 

“Well, actually, historically, vampires-” Danny cut Sam off before she got too lost on her mythology.

“Sorry Sam, I promise you can tell me about vampires and cats later, but I really want to figure out what happened before I have to go home. On the off chance my parent’s remember to leave the lab today, I need to be home for dinner,” he explained. Sam sighed, but nodded.

“Fair, but I’m holding you to that. Tucker took all the ranting time at lunch today talking about the Simulation Hypothesis.”

“Aw, you were listening,” Tucker said. “But let’s write down everything we know so far.” He pulled a laptop out of his bag and opened a blank document. “Alright, you two talk, I’ll type.”

“Well, whatever this is definitely started after the portal accident. So it’s a ghost thing,” Danny started.

“Yeah, I think we got that one Fenton,” Sam snorted.

“I thought that was the point Manson.”

“We’re wasting daylight people! Chop chop, weird ghost power time!” Tucker clapped and stared at them over his laptop screen.

“Okay, okay. So, so far we’ve seen Ghost Boy turn intangible and stop objects before hitting him.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I ever agreed to this whole ‘Ghost Boy’ thing.” Danny interrupted. 

“No, I think it’s a good idea for me to put that here instead of your real name. We don’t want anyone reading this and knowing you have superpowers.”

“Alright, fine, but we’re changing it once we think of a better name,” Danny sighed. “I don’t think I was using a shield to stop the paper. It felt more like I was… levitating them, I guess?”

“Okay, mark down possible telepathy then Tucker.”

“I feel like this is sort of pointless,” Danny said. “I mean, maybe we all just had some weird delusion for a second or this is some bad ectoplasm induced trip? People in this town do weird things sometimes, maybe this is just something like that!” There was quiet for a few moments as Danny waited for his friends to respond. After a beat, he turned to see them looking up at him with a bemused expression on their faces. He racked his brain to see why what he said would cause them to- wait. Up?”

He looked down and saw that there were a few inches between him and the bed he had been previously sitting on. Bat noticed the distance and jumped down from his lap, looking up at Danny in betrayal.

“Uh guys? Little help?” Danny asked. But as hard as they pulled, Sam and Tucker had no success in pulling him down.

“I don’t know, Danny. Just, think ground thoughts or something!”

“Ground thoughts? What does that even mean?” Danny sighed again, and found himself falling back down onto the bed with an “oof.”

“Well, mark down levitation too Tuck,” Sam suggested. “You two need to get home, but something tells me we’re going to have a lot of fun exploring these powers more.”

“By something do you mean your weird psychic powers?” Tucker asked. 

“I’m going to stop entertaining questions from you about me not being human.” Sam said,”At least until you decide what I am.”

“Well, if I can be a ghost there’s no telling what else could happen,” Danny said brightly. “Maybe Tucker will turn into a werewolf.”

“With all the ectoplasm in the air, I wouldn’t doubt it,” he replied. The laughter that filled the air between the three friends was light, and for a moment none of their problems seemed real. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next friday will be the retelling of the first episode! I've officially started school, so updates may eventually become every other week, but for now I think I have enough written for two more fridays  
If you enjoyed this updates please leave a comment/kudo uwu


	3. Episode 1. I just wanted to eat my fucking lunch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the lunch lady has a southern accent for some reason?? idk just roll with it

It wasn’t just the environment of Amity Park that was abnormal. The people of the town, though they were not often aware of it, did not always behave in a way that people from anywhere else in the world would think acceptable. Before the portal, it had just been simple things. There were days when everyone was suddenly filled with the same emotions ranging from sadness to joy to anger, but always just one at a time.

After that things got… well, it wasn’t exactly worse. If anything, this was far less noticeable. It was, however, ten times more concerning. Or, in some cases, more hilarious. One of said cases occurred almost a month after Danny discovered his ability to transform into a ghostly form when the trio was once again gathered in the richest of the three’s bedroom.

“You know, we were joking when we said you were going to become a werewolf,” Sam laughed. Tucker moaned and buried his face in his hands. 

“I don’t know what to do! My orthodontist is going to be so confused. I’m supposed to go in a few weeks to get my braces taken off,” he moaned again, and removed his face from his hands to look up at his friends, revealing what he was so upset about. His canines, which had always been a little on the longer side but definitely normal, were now long enough that they went past the top of his bottom row of teeth. One of them was currently being used to pull back his lip which he was chewing on in anxiety.

“I think they’re cute,” Danny offered. “Little baby fangs,” he added with a coo. 

“Yeah, you’re gonna think they’re real cute when I’m using them to suck your blood in your sleep.” 

“Nah, my bloods all full of ectoplasm. Probably gross. ‘Sides, vampires drink blood, not werewolves, remember?” Tucker simply growled at his friend.

“Down boy!” Sam laughed, miming hitting him with a newspaper. Tucker rolled his eyes. “But really, I’m pretty sure your dentist has seen weirder things in this town. Have you noticed that Star has been scratching her head a lot lately?” She asked, seemingly switching gears. “I even saw her rubbing her head against her book the other day.”

“A little weird, but what about it?” Danny asked.

“Well, what if she was growing horns or something?”

“You read too many of those weird mystery books,” Tucker laughed. “Though, this town has been so much stranger than usual lately. And that’s saying something.”

“On that note,” Danny began with resignation in his voice. “I have to go attend my parent’s lecture of ghost hunting before they assume I was kidnapped by ghosts and hunt  _ me _ down.”

“Oh. Bye, have fun,” Sam waved. 

“Yeah, see you tomorrow dude,” Tucker added, going back to petting Bat. 

“Really? No offers to go with more for moral support? No pity for the half-ghost that has to listen to his parents talk about how much they want to dismember his kind?” Sam and Tucker exchanged glances and, after some silent communication, groaned. 

“Fine,” Sam sighed. 

“You owe us,” Tucker added. 

“Yeah, and you can’t use the ‘we electrocuted you’ excuse anymore since you got super powers from it either!”

“They’re not super powers, Sam. They’re ghost powers. As in, dead people powers. So, yeah, I’m totally using that as an excuse for the rest of my half-life.”

“Now kids, the most important thing to remember is that the thermos doesn’t destroy the ghosts, it merely traps them! And while the thermos works for reasonable stretches of time, it won’t contain the ghost forever. So, if you do get attacked and trap a ghost, be sure to tell us so that we can experiment on it before destroying it.” 

Danny flinched at his dad’s rather easy way of talking about killing sentient creatures, not to mention a type of creature that he technically was. Sam, who had already been doodling things on his arm, squeezed his hand, which caused some of the tension to drain from him. He sent her a thankful look. 

“So, we’ll be giving each of you a thermos to use so that you can be protected at all times, but be very careful with it. These, unlike some of our other weapons, are tested models that a lot of work went into.” His mother continued from where Jack had let off. 

“Tested?’ Tucker asked in barely concealed horror.

“Oh yes!” Maddie answered. “We caught a ghost last month and used it to perfect a number of anti-spectral weaponry.” 

This set off alarm bells for Danny. One of the first things he had realized was that whenever a ghost was nearby, he got an odd chill in the center of his chest before releasing a breath that was visible no matter what the temperature, and seemed to leave his mouth feeling dry. That hadn’t happened when he walked into the lab. 

“What did you do with it when you were done testing?” He asked carefully. Tucker and Sam seemed to catch on to his meaning if the looks they shot him meant anything. 

“Well it um…” His dad trailed off. 

“It escaped,” Maddie sighed in dejection. Danny let out a sigh for a completely different reason. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if his parents had killed that ghost because he wasn’t able to send it back to the Ghost Zone in time. 

“I know, dear, it’s so disappointing,” she said, misreading his response. Sam snorted and attempted to cover it with a cough.

Suddenly, Danny had the feeling. An almost blue breath blew out of his mouth and he looked around wildly in alarm.The portal from the other side of the room glowed a bright green for a bare second before going back to its resting state. Something had just come through. He squeezed Sam’s arm in two short bursts, their sign for ‘danger.’ She also looked around and tried to motion to Tucker, who was already on alert having seen the exchange take place. 

‘Oh Mrs. Fenton!” Sam said, perhaps too loudly. “I would really love if you would show me that lipstick taser again. I just love how it can actually be used as a real tube of lipstick as well as a weapon!”   
“Well, it’s in the back with the other failed prototypes right now, but I suppose I can dig it out and show it to you again,” she said, confusion clear in her voice. Sam had been rather averse to the object when Maddie first tried to peddle it on her, going off on a speech about both cruelty and gender norms. 

“Why don’t I come with to take a look at it?” Tucker offered . “They don’t call me a tech wiz for nothing!” Jack and Maddie both shared a look but shrugged.

“Sure kids, I guess. Danny, are you coming with?” She asked after his friends had moved to follow her and her husband to the back room.

“I, uh. Have to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back, don’t wait for me!” he answered. Both his parents gave him an odd look but nodded and continued. Over his shoulder, Tucker mouthed “you owe us big time.” Then, the door to the other room shut behind them and Danny sighed. 

“Okay, if you’re invisible, you can come out now,” Danny whispered. In front of him appeared an eldery looking ghost, wearing a hairnet and an apron and weilding a serving spoon. She gave him a grandmotherly smile and spoke.

“Well now how did you know I was here?” She asked kindly.

“Just a hunch,” Danny said dryly. “Look, I respect if you have some business over here, but if you just came over to make a wreck, I would really appreciate it if you went home. As you probably heard, you won’t have a very fun time if my parents catch you.”

“No plans to cause any messes young man, that I promise,” she said, doing the “cross my heart” motion with the handle of her ladle. 

“Okay, good luck with whatever business you have then, I guess. Uh, maybe I’ll see you later?” he laughed sheepishly.

“Yes, maybe you will,” She laughed and began to float upwards out the ceiling when Danny realized something.

“Oh wait!” She paused her ascent and looked down at him. “I’m sorry, but would you mind giving me your name? We’re trying to keep track of all the ghosts who come through so that we know who’s malicious and who’s friendly,” he explained, hoping she wouldn’t take offense when asked like some ghosts had. . 

“Well it ain’t no bother hun. You can call me the lunch lady.” And with that, she turned invisible and supposedly went off to take care of whatever business she had. 

Danny really, really hoped he hadn’t just made a mistake. 

“-but the thing is is that Snape was never even really in love with Lily? He just had a warped sense of love because of his abusive household, which yeah is a reason, but it’s not an excuse. If you really love someone, you want them to be happy, not belong to you! And people always use the excuse that-” Suddenly Sam’s flow of words was cut off by a now annoyingly familiar mist coming out of his mouth. 

“Why is it always my rants that get cut off?” She sighed. “I swear I just one ghost to attack when Tucker’s telling me about Edward’s software update for the tenth time.”

“Hey, remember the rule about other people’s rants,” Danny chided. Sam released a long suffering sigh. 

“Ugh, you're right, sorry Tuck. I’m just frustrated. Don't these dead people have anything better to do than bother teenagers?”

“I accept your apology, but you’re also going to have have to apologize to Edward.” The tech genius replied, shoving his phone towards Sam's face. She gently batted it away without looking at it. 

“Yeah, no, not doing that. Anyways, Danny, want us to tag along?”

“Nah,” the halfa replied, pushing in his chair and standing up. “It was a weak one so it might just be a passive ghost I need to politely tell to get lost. If I’m not back by bell can you throw my tray away?” 

“Aye-aye captain,” Tucker said with a mock salute. “Go kick some ghost ass!”

“Through polite negotiations,” Sam added. Danny gave them both a thumbs up and headed out of the cafeteria, turning invisible to avoid detection by hall monitors and following his instincts to where the spectral presence was, eventually finding himself in a deserted teacher’s lounge. 

“Lunch Lady?” He asked upon seeing the familiar ghost. He had just allowed her to leave peacefully yesterday, and had assumed when he heard no reports of a rampage that she had managed to find her way back home. Apparently he was wrong, and he watched as she motioned towards a piece of paper on the corkboard in front of her and sighed sadly. 

“Is this paper true?” She asked. Danny lent forward to see the paper was a lunch calendar, showing this month's selection of mystery meat and mixed vegetables. 

“Yeah? I’m sorry, do you need help with something?”

“No, dear, I’m just rather put out about how they’ve been running the cafeteria in my absence Well actually, could you direct me towards the room in question? It seems they must have changed the layout of the school since I departed.”

“Wow, you must have worked here a long time ago,” Danny said, not unkindly. It was almost a compliment to tell ghosts they had been dead for a long time, as the longer you were dead the more power you gained from the exposure to ectoplasm in the Ghost Zone. “They haven’t changed the school in a while. I think the place where the cafeteria is now technically used to be a gym though,” he shrugged. “I can point you there as long as you keep your promise to not attack anyone.”

“Then it’s probably best you didn’t,” she said sadly. “I’m not sure I could hold my temper seeing children eating this. It’s terrible how they seem to care so little for you children. When I was here the school’s whole purpose was to educate. Now it seems to be to make football players.”   
“You’re telling me,” Danny laughed and she smiled. The bell range, and the smile fell from his face. 

“Oh, you best get going now. I’ll make my way back through your parent’s portal, don’t worry about me. I don’t know who you are dear, but I feel I should wish you luck. It seems you’ll need it.”

“Thank you,” Danny said, but she was already gone, off to make her way back to her home. He sighed and began the walk to class. He would have to grab a granola bar out of his bag when his teacher wasn’t looking. 

Even so, this could have gone a lot worse. Danny almost wondered to himself why he was doing all of this again, then thought of the havoc that could have been wrecked if he hadn’t stopped the Lunch Lady from searching for the cafeteria and taking out her rage when she inevitably found it. Besides, it was nice to hear that someone at least wasn’t disillusioned about the public school system yet. 

Still though, he hoped ghosts would stop coming during school hours. Missing lunch sucked, and there were only so many times he could say he needed to use the bathroom during class. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> still not a super long chapter, but next week's is 4000 words so its chill lmao  
Hope you enjoyed this one, as you can tell, I decided to make the ghosts a little less power hungry and have the trio be a lot more diplomatic. They are going to have to fight in the future of course, but for now the ghosts are relatively harmless.   
Please leave comments and kudos! They encourage me to keep going, and i love hearing your thoughts!!


	4. A posessively fun school dance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is,,, so long. I'm sorry

Danny jolted awake as he felt a cold finger being repeatedly shoved into his ribs, and gave an annoyed groan to his unidentified assailant without opening his eyes. The poking stopped, and was replaced with an amused snort. Assailant identified. He gave Sam a long suffering look, which was quickly matched by her shit-eating grin.

“C’mon Ghost-Boy. It’s no fun hanging out if you’re just going to sleep all day!”   
“I will murder you and everyone you hold dear.”

“Pretty short list there. Hope you like murdering my grandma, your only two friends, and yourself,” Sam said dryly. 

“Okay, I’ll just cut holes in your favorite jeans so you can’t wear them to school or something anymore. I’m tired, give me a minute to come up with some more creative threats.” He rubbed his eyes and blearily looked around the room. He must have just drifted off into his textbook before Sam decided to be  nice  mean and wake up. 

“No can do, sleepyhead. You’ve got a English test to study for. Remember? Lancer threatening to have a parent teacher conference if you flunked another test? Your crazy parents that blame everything on ghosts? Them actually being right for once? Ring a bell?”

“No,” Danny crossley, burying his head back in his book. Tucker laughed at him like the betrayer he is.

“Dude, I know you’re tired but you can sleep as soon as you do a few more flashcards.”

“No, I can’t Tucker. Because after I do these flashcards then I have to go home, and when I’m home I get woken up by ghosts coming through the god-damned portal every five seconds. Then I have to screen them to make sure they’re not evil because god had abandoned me.”

His friends looked like they were trying very hard not to laugh, and he huffed.

“Any chance I could stay with either of you tonight?” He begged. 

“No can do, I’m still technically grounded for getting another dress code violation,” Sam said apologetically. Danny turned his pleading eyes to Tucker. 

“Don’t look at me, my parents are getting pissed about my grades too. There’s no way they’ll let me have someone over with such a big test tomorrow.”

Danny sighed and mouthed a silent “fuck you” to the sky and flopped down further into Sam’s bean bag chair. It looked like he was on his own.

The young halfa (though the trio had not yet used or heard of this word) was once more abruptly awoken, this time by a familiar cool mist rising from his mouth. It hovered in the air as he peeled his eyes open, and seemed to taunt him. It was so light, so free. Jesus, he was getting jealous of some annoying mist now. His life really was falling apart.

Quietly but quickly, he made his way down to the lab to discover who had woken him up so rudely. In the middle of the sterile white room stood a girl who looked no more than a year or two older than him, who's glowing blue skin contrasted with her bright pale yellow dress. There were flowers of the same shade braided through her black hair that had been tied up in a plait interwoven with what appeared to be strings of gold. It was wrapped around her head to serve as a sort of crown. All together she gave off a somewhat regal air, that was only slightly subtracted for the fact that she was barefoot and openly weeping. Danny could see no signs of what had caused her death, but he was finding that to be the norm among most ghosts. Thankfully, he had learned quickly enough not to ask.

“Hello?” He asked hesitantly. The girl snapped to attention and turned her gaze towards him immediately. She made no move to wipe her face, but instantly stopped crying.

“Oh, hello,” she answered. “Would you happen to know where I am?’ There was a tilt to her voice, like maybe she had had an accent or spoken another language long ago that was now only vaguely familiar to her. 

“Well, you’re kind of in my house. Or lair, I guess you would call it,” he chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. “Beyond that, you’re in the Living Realm. Amity Park, to be specific.”

“Amity Park,” she tried to name on her tongue. “A wonderful name for a wonderful town, I’m sure. Tell me, would this town happen to have any upcoming balls?” Danny racked his brain to try and find something that would please the ghost, having learned it was best not to tell them ‘no’ about the thing they had crossed over for, especially when it was something that seemed harmless.

“Well, there’s the winter semi formal coming up. We don’t really have ‘balls’ per se anymore, but we do have dances at highschools, or schools for teenagers.”

“Wonderful, wonderful,” she muttered. Danny got the impression she wasn’t very concerned with his ramblings of the modern Living Realm and just cared about the dance. “Pray tell, when is this ‘semi formal?’”

“Uh, before I tell you that you have to promise me something.” 

“I will make no promises without hearing the terms. Making blind promises costed me my throne and my life,” she said firmly. Thankfully, she didn’t seem terribly upset. Or maybe it was just 3 am and Danny had no idea how to tell regular human emotions apart, let alone the often even more complex ghost emotions.

“Well, you’re going to have to stay intangible and invisible for the dance. There will be a lot of humans there, and they won’t be very happy if they see a ghost. Just stay out of the way and it will all be fine,” he smiled. She did not return it, but she did nod.

“I can accept these terms. Now please, tell me the time and location of this not-ball. I must begin preparing at once.”

Ignoring the fact that preparing was kind of pointless since no one would be able to see her, he told her the information for the dance and sighed in relief as she floated back through the portal. These ghosts were getting stranger and stranger.

Danny took a quick glance at his paper before shoving it quickly into his binder. Sam and Tucker gave him equal questioning looks, but he just shook his head. He couldn’t risk writing a note and getting further into deep waters with Lancer, who he swore had eagle eyes, which they seemed to pick up on with a curt nod.

He bounced his leg in anxiety and stole glances at the clock every few seconds, barely understanding a word of the lecture on descriptive writing, or something, before finally, blessedly, the bell rang.

He gathered up his books as quickly as possible and made a beeline for the door, but right before he stepped into freedom he was interrupted by the dreaded words. 

“Mr. Fenton? May I speak to you for a moment?” Danny inwardly cussed and, ignoring the sympathetic looks from his friends, forced a smile and nod to his teacher. 

Once everyone except for the two of them had vacated the room, Mr. Lancer sat in the chair behind his desk, and looked as though he deflated, aging a few years in front of his eyes.

“Danny…” he sighed heavily, and Danny was momentarily thrown by the use of his first name. “What’s going on with you lately?”

“Oh, nothing new. You know me Mr. L! Studying too little, watching t.v. too much, just like normal.” He cringed internally at his own clearly falsely positive words. Rather than moving to scold him like he hoped he would, Mr. Lancer just seemed to grow sadder. 

“You and I both know that’s not true. English was never your best class, but I talked to Mrs. Marlow and she says you’re struggling in science too. I know for a fact you haven’t gotten anything but A’s in that subject since middle school, so why don’t you just tell us what’s really going on.”

“Nothing Mr. Lancer,” Danny said quietly, aware he sounded almost desperate now. “Everything is fine. I guess I was just coasting for a while and now it’s catching up to me. You all knew I was never going to be as smart as Jazz, right?” He threw the joke in at the end, but it fell flat.

“Danny, you have so much potential! I don’t know what’s going on, but you can’t waste everything like this. Your essays about things you were interested used to be ones I looked forward to the most, but now half of your writing looks closer to Latin than English! Please, just let someone help you.” He was nearly begging now, and Danny wished so badly he could listen to him and do as he asked. He was so tired, and maybe if his parents experimented on him they could make this go away. It could go back to how it was before the portal, and this could all just seem like a bad dream. But really, he knew that would never work. It just wasn’t an option.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he whispered. Mr. Lancer sighed again, but in a resigned way that showed he almost expected that answer. 

“If you’re sure we can’t help you, Mr. Fenton. You’re aware I’m going to need to contact your parents for this?” The question sent waves of fear through Danny. Realistically, his parents would probably forget to even intend, and if they did remember they would just “uh-uh” their way through the entire meeting while daydreaming their next experiment, but he couldn’t take the chance. Not when he had become everything his parents hated. Everything they hunted and despised and tortured. Not when he heard exactly what they wanted to do to someone like him. 

His teacher was still looking at him, a mix of confusion and pity. Danny hated that expression. He wished everyone could just understand that he was doing this for them. If he let his guard down for even a second, the ghosts that were bent on destruction would get through. He was bruised from the fights that occured when he had to say no, and so so tired. His head was throbbing from a lack of sleep and his overactive mind was imagining all the terrible things his parents would do if they found out he had been exposed to ectoplasm and he. Snapped. And he was reaching forward to grab his teacher’s wrist from where had been writing on a sticky note a reminder to schedule the meeting, but instead of physically stopping the movement, Danny’s hand seemed to disappear into the larger one. But the hand still stopped.

Before Mr. Lancer’s mind was caught up enough to even understand what was happening, Danny stepped the rest of the way into his body. 

It almost felt like wearing a mask that had only eye holes cut into it, looking out of someone else’s eyes. He was in full control of this body, but it obviously did not like responding to him as much as it’s real owner. That was fine, he didn’t have very much to ask of it.

Writing a note in hand writing he had seen in the comments of so many of his assignments that said he had “Had a discussion with Mr. Fenton and been reassured there was no need to involve parents,” he considered what to do next. Eventually, he hoped being possessed would make Mr. Lancer’s body unconscious once he left, and decided to just leave him to assume he had fallen asleep and… misremembered the conversation? Danny was tired, and this was the best plan he had. 

He was really bad at this secret identity thing.

When he saw Mr. Lancer later in the cafeteria, the English teacher gave him a kind if slightly confused smile. He counted it as a success. 

“Danny, may I speak with you?” Danny startled and resisted the urge to rub his eyes or pinch himself. This must have been a dream, because only then would it make any sense for Paulina to be speaking to  _ him.  _ A few seconds of startled staring was met only with Paulina continuing to smile at him, and eventually his friends snorted and told him they would see him later. They hurried off, and he was left alone in the hallway with the most popular girl in the school.

“Uh-uh? I mean, yeah, sure, sorry. What’s up?” His voice cracked on the last syllable, and he cleared his throat to try and hide it, feeling his face warm. Paulina just continued to smile.

“Well, I was thinking… Do you have a date to the semi formal yet?’

-

"She's up to something," Sam said flatly. Danny rolled his eyes and hugged Bat closer to his chest.

"I know you don't like her Sam, but are you seriously suggesting the only reason a pretty girl would ask me to a dance is because she's up to a nefarious plot?" 

"Yes."

"No offense Danny, but isn't she usually bullying you just as much as Dash? Why would she suddenly want to go to a dance with you?" Tucker questioned. 

"I don't know," Danny muttered defensively. "She said she liked my shirt." 

"Seriously? And you don't think that's just a little bit odd?" Sam asked. 

"It's a cool shirt!" Danny defended. 

“It’s a science pun,” she deadpanned. 

“A cool science pun! C’mon, ‘Orbital notation? More like orbital NOtation’ is a great pun and you know it.”

“I don’t think Paulina even knows what an orbital is,” Tucker said, bravely stepping into the argument.

“Sam, aren’t you the one always going on about backwards feminism and how girls can be both pretty and smart and all that shit?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, but Paulina doesn’t want to be smart! Which I wouldn’t care about if she wasn’t a huge bitch all the time. Seriously Danny, I just don’t want to see you get hurt because you wanted to go to a dance with a popular girl.”    
“I know,” Danny sighed. “But I already said yes, and I have to go to the dance to watch out for that weird ghost girl anyways. I might as well show up and agree to do her geometry homework or whatever. At least I can pretend I’m not just a nerdy half-dead teenager in the most fucked up town in America.”

“Cheers, I’ll drink to that bro,” Tucker said, lifting an imaginary glass. Danny clinked his imaginary glass against it, and they both mimed taking a shot in solidarity. Sam simply rolled her eyes at them and went back to planning on how to convince her mom to let her skip wearing a dress to the dance. 

-

“I can’t believe you were spot on with her asking you to do her geometry homework,” Sam nearly shouted over the blaring music in awe. Danny stuck his tongue out at her.

“Yeah, guess this trio has a new psychic.”

“For the last fucking time, can you all just decidie if I’m a vampire or a psychic or a witch or whatever the hell! I swear to god-”

“Oh hey guys. What happened to your shirt, Danny?” Tucker appeared holding three glasses of punch, two of which Sam eagerly stole and drained.

“Paulina got pissed when he said he couldn’t do her geometry homework and threw her drink on him. It looked like a really bad low-budget remake of  _ Carrie,” _ the goth explained. Tucker winced, which caused his fangs to glint of the strobing lights.

“Yikes,” he said. “Well, it’s still kind of better than her asking you on a dare right?”

“I guess,” Danny shrugged, not altogether worried. “Kinda mad about the shirt though. I was telling the truth too, I really don’t have time to do her homework.”

“And even if you did, cheating is wrong,” Sam said firmly.

“Yes mother,” Danny rolled his eyes and waved her off. Sam’s eyes narrowed, and it looked as though she was about to start a lecture when she was cut off by a scream, followed almost immediately by a pale blue mist escaping Danny's mouth.

“That’s my cue,” he sighed, pushing himself out of his chair before he came to a sudden realization. “Shit, I don’t have my backpack. Sam any chance you-”

“Here,” Sam interrupted, pulling a fenton thermos out of her purse and pressing it into Danny’s hands. “It was a fucking pain finding a bag big enough for that thing, tell your parents to make it smaller,” she commanded. 

“I’ll be sure to pass along the message,” he snorted. “Wish me luck!”

“Luck,” the two said half heartedly, which he could no longer hear over the music as he walked away from the table.

Stepping outside of the gym doors caused a dramatic shift in volume, and as he walked down the usually packed but now empty hallways he couldn't help but be reminded of how  _ creepy  _ this town could be sometimes. The shadows cast through the setting sun shining through the windows never seemed to stay in one place for more than a second at a time, and beyond the faint music he could still hear the school was deathly quiet. 

Playing it safe, he ducked into an abandoned classroom before transforming, muttering a “Goin’ ghost” to himself under his breath. It wasn’t exactly necessary for the transformation, but he always found the hilarity of the slogan to keep him from freaking the fuck out about the fact that he was… dying? Shifting into a spectral form? Altering his entire molecular and bodily structure? Whatever the fuck he was doing, he was about to go fight at least one entity, and it was probably going to be scary as hell. 

He couldn't really describe it, but whenever he had to try to find a ghost, it almost felt like he could play hot/cold using whatever that cold feeling in his chest was, though the midt only seemed to come once whenever he encountered a new ghost. Well, he followed that and the sounds of commotion that suddenly pierced the silence. Eventually he was brought to an art room where what appeared to be a freshman girl was cowering under the ghost he had met earlier in the week. 

Thanking Christ that he had already transformed, Danny rushed in. 

"Ball girl? What are you doing attacking a random freshie? Er, no offense," he added, noticing the annoyed look on the girl's face. She also looked understandably scared, but probably not as much as she would have if she lived anywhere else in the world. Instead, she rolled her eyes and used the distraction to get out of the corner she had been backed into.

She ran to the doorway, paused, and said "I think she was trying to steal my dress or something? I have no idea bro. You've got this from here right? Kaitlyn's waiting for me." Then continued to move in the direction of the gymnasium without waiting for an answer.

Danny turned back to the ghost, who was looking angrier by the second. 

"You're going to regret interrupting me!" She fumed, ectoplasm pooling in her hands and turning her eyes a bright green. 

"Oh shit, am I going to actually have to fight you? I'm really bad at that. Are you sure you don't just want to talk about your feelings? Tucker's better at that than I am, but we could work this out." The ghost sent a blast of ectoplasm, hastily dodged on his part, in response. Danny sighed, and pooled ectoplasm into his own hands.

"Okay, but if you change your mind let me know." He rushed forward, having levitated a few inches of the ground while talking, and attempted to punch her in the jaw. She dodged out of the way, and in return kicked a heel into his ribcage.

"Fuck!" Danny exclaimed, sending a blind ray while doubled over in the air that somehow hit true, sending the ghost into the wall behind her. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do much damage as she immediately stood back up, readying another attack. 

"You took everything from me!" She growled, and Danny quickly dodged out of the way of another slew of ecto-blasts. He had learned long ago that intangibility only worked for physical items, not burst of pure energy mixed into an otherworldly goo. 

"Uh, I think you have-" he paused to catch his breath, and the attacks were seemingly ceased as the ghost in front of him swayed in the air"-me confused with someone else. I'm pretty sure all I did was save some kid from you." The ghost was not reassured by his words, and seemed to become almost desperate, but she was no longer actively attacking, so that was something 

"No, no, no, this night was supposed to be perfect," she shuddered, and her form momentarily flickered out of existence. "It was my last chance," she added in a whisper.

"Look, let's just calm down and talk, okay?" Danny pleaded. "I'm really shitty at this whole fighting thing still." 

She glowed for a moment, still frantically attempting to dredge up another attack, her hands trembling, before all the fight seemed to drain out of her.

"I just wanted to have one perfect ball.” Her words were laced with pain, and Danny was beginning to think that maybe fighting was actually easier than this. Jazz and Tucker were always better with this feelings stuff. “Maybe then…”

“You could move on?” He asked with sympathy. “I don’t know your story, but I do know that trying to force yourself to move on isn’t going to work. Hell, I don’t even know if there is such a thing as moving on. Maybe the Ghost Zone is it.”

“Maybe,” she sighed. “I do not exactly have the greatest after-life currently in the Ghost Zone.”

“I’m sorry,” Danny said, lost for any other words that could convey how sorry he truly was. None of the ghosts he had encountered so far had seemed especially happy, but he could tell this one in particular was having a pretty miserable afterlife. “I really am, but I can’t let you attack people in Amity. I’m kind of the unofficial protector of this town.”

“I understand,” she said. She began floating again and though she did not seem any more cheerful, she at least didn't look like she was about to go on a rampage. “I do not know what you are, child, half ghost and half living, but I can sense that your not quite afterlife is not going smoothly either, and I do not wish to cause trouble for others. I simply…” she smiled ruefully. “Well, it does not matter. Half-child, I wish you luck, and I promise that I will strive to cause no more trouble in the realm you have claimed.”

“Thank you,” Danny said. “I appreciate it. I hope things get better for you.”

“So do I, half-child,” she sighed again. And with those parting words she vanished, assumedly going invisible, or possibly teleporting.

He was, for some reason, struck with the realization that he had never even learned her name.

He was always left feeling strange after fights like this, staring at the unneeded thermos in his hands. These were people who had died in a manner that filled them with a burning obsession for something, causing their spirits to be infused with ectoplasm and shoved into new forms reflecting their new selves. And he had to be the one to stop them from doing what they needed to satisfy that obsession, because it would harm his town.

Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last time, he cursed himself for stepping through that portal. Life used to be so simple when he was just a normal teenager trying to pass his classes. Now he was just tired, and vaguely sad. 

He transformed, and marched back towards the packed gym filled with happy students who had no idea the threats he was constantly protecting them from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter I have fully written out so next week or the week after I might be starting bi weekly updates, but I'm going to try to stick to some sort of schedule lmao  
As always, please comment your thoughts!


	5. Hunters, Apes, and Fast Food (a teenagers how to guide for the perfect weekend)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, would you look at the date? It only uh, like 2 weeks late. And its extra long. RIP

****

Danny stood outside the door to Sam’s bedroom, which lately they had taken to hanging out in a lot more since most of their conversations were unfit to discuss in public, and was about to knock when he heard voices coming from inside. Figuring Tucker must already be there, he pushed the door open to find Sam laughing uproariously at a bemused looking Tucker.

“Oh I am dying to hear this story,” Danny said. He shut the door behind him and flopped himself on the nearest bean bag chair and turned to Sam expectantly.

“T-Tuck- he- dentist-” was all she managed to get out before completely dissolving into laughter. “I- I can’t-”

“Tucker? You want to clue me in?” Danny asked.

“Not really,” he sighed. “Don’t know why Sam thinks its so funny anyways.”

“It’s fucking hilarious, Wolf Boy!”   
“Yeah, okay, screw you too, Dracula.”

Danny, about to fully die from anticipation and confident enough in his powers that he could do this without causing a disaster, pooled enough ectoplasm to cause a small green fire in his hand. The glow finally caught his friends attention.

“Not that this isn’t very entertaining, but will someone please tell me what happened?” he asked, clenching his fist and effectively extinguishing the fire.

“I’ll tell you,” Tucker said reluctantly. “Sam will probably make it sounds way worse than it is.”

“Which is impossible,” the goth cut in.

“Anyways,” Danny cleared his throat.

“Right, so I was at the dentist earlier today to see if I was ready to get my braces off- which I’m apparently not, before you ask,” he added noticing the look on Danny’s face. “But after he checked he went outside to talk to my parents for a bit. I figured he was just talking with them about insurance or something, y’know?”

“I’m assuming not based on Sam’s reaction.”

“Yeah. Not. So get this, the dentist comes back in with a fucking file! Not like, a paper one, either. He was going to try and file my fangs down!” Danny gasped, mostly because the situation called for it, but also because he was genuinely surprised. 

“What did you?”   
“Er, well…”

“He bit him!” Sam cut in, once more laughing her head off. “He bit his fucking dentist!”

“I was panicked!” Tucker defended.

“I thought you didn’t like the fangs?” Danny asked. Tucker looked embarrassed.

“Well, I didn’t at first, but now I think they’re kind of cool. A lot of other kids seem to be getting them too, plus, you get to have a bunch of cool ghost powers. I like having something too.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty fitting for your disgusting meat eating habits,” Sam teased gently. Tucker stuck his tongue out between his fangs.

“So, I’m guessing he didn’t try it again?” Danny asked.

“Thankfully no. Just started muttering about how kids in this town have been getting weirder by the day. Which is, y’know, kinda accurate.”

“Star’s been wearing hats lately,” Sam noted idly. “Also, either half the school has been really into fake nails lately or I think claws are next on the menu.”

“For someone who says she doesn’t care about fashion you sure do pay a lot of attention to people’s accessory choices,” Tucker snorted.

“I’m bisexual, I’m legally obligated to spend half of the day staring at girls.”

“Fair,” Tucker shrugged. “It’s kinda weird that it only seems like kids have been getting these… well, I don’t want to call them mutations, but that’s kind of what they are.”

“It probably has something to do with the fact that since younger people are either going through puberty or haven’t started it yet, their body is really susceptible to change. So all the new ectoplasm from the portal is affecting us the same way a chemical in the drinking water would,” Danny shrugged. His two friends were staring at him. “... What? I know I’m better at chemistry but I did manage to pass biology guys,” he asked, a little offended by how surprised they looked when he had just made a pretty simple observation.

“No, it’s not that, it’s just that you, well, it kinda sounded like you weren’t speaking English there for a second,” Tucker said. Sam nodded, apparently having heard whatever it was Tucker had in his words.

“I’m pretty sure you said ‘portal’ based on context clues, but it sounded like you said ‘sruwdo’ or some shit.”

“Maybe you guys are getting a little _ too _ affected by the ectoplasm,” the half-ghost laughed. “Come on, I still need to practice this possession thing. Any volunteers today?” And with a quick round of rock paper scissors following a series of elaborate gestures, Danny got to spend the afternoon attempting to make Tucker do increasingly ridiculous things. The laughter that filled the room made sure not one of the three thought of the incident again that night. 

* * *

“Uh-oh.” Danny placed his back pack on a chair, looking at the large assortment of scrap etal and tools that was currently taking up his kitchen table. “New invention?”   
“Yup!” His mother smiled, pulling her weilding mask away from her face and putting down her blowtorch. “We’re calling it the  _ Fenton Ghost Grabber.”  _

“Catchy. Can I have three guesses for what it does?”

“It grabs ghosts, Danny-boy!” His dad said, and Danny turned around to see him carrying a large assortment of even more lose tools.

“Thanks, Dad. I was really confused for a minute there.”

“Be nice to your father,” his mom lightly scolded. Danny shoot her a thumbs up, as all bisexuals do when they don’t have a response.

“So, when will you guys be in the alpha stage?” He asked with forced casualty. Right now, the hardest part of dealing with malignant ghosts was keeping them contained long enough to force them into the thermos. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, this could be the invention that made his job so much easier.

“This is our fifth prototype, and we’re mainly just working out a few kinks from the previous model. If all goes well, it should be done and fully functioning by tonight,” Maddie said a clear note of pride in her voice.

Later that night, the invention mysteriously vanished from the lab, and she sighed while she sent her husband to retrieve the tools while she pulled out the blueprints to build another. Stupid sabotaging ghosts… 

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me," Danny groaned, bunching the paper he had just been handed on his way out of the classroom into a ball in frustration. His friends set him sympathetic looks. 

"It's going to be okay Danny, one more bad grade isn't going to ruin you," Sam said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"It's not that," Danny argued, shaking her hand off. "Lancer wrote that if I don't ask him about some major extra credit, he's going to be forced to fail me."

"Oh, that's a big L," Tuckee agreed. "So, you going to ask him about it tomorrow?"

"Well, I don't really have a choice, do I? It's either do some shitty extra credit paper or fail English class. Which is really not high on my list of plans for my junior year."

"Maybe you could try that thing you did last time? The whole possession realm just write a note saying that you did it," Tucker suggested. 

"That seems kind of… unethical," Danny shuddered. "I mean, if it gets to that point I'll consider it, but for now it seems like a bit of a dick move to make Lancer think he's going crazy because I'm too stupid to pass an English class." 

"First of all, you're not stupid," Sam cut in. "You're just being kept up by these fucking annoying ass ghosts. But secondly, I do agree that it's probably not the best idea to solve all your problems with overshadowing." Tucker and Danny stared at her for the unfamiliar word. Sam, surprisingly, blushed. "I read the term in a vampire novel, okay? It's basically the same thing as possession."

"I like it. It's got  _ flare,"  _ Tucker snapped to punctuate the final word. Danny snorted.

"You're both ridiculous," he sighed fondly. "I'm half dead and somehow still manage to be the normal one." 

"Ah, you love us," Tucker argued with a dorky grin, throwing his arm around the shorter boys shoulder, causing him to stumble as they walked the path home. Danny shook him off without any real malice. 

* * *

"You have to do what now exactly?" Sam's incredulous voice rang out in the hallways, though it went largely unnoticed in the usually after school chaos as locker doors slammed and kids yelled loudly across corridors to "have a good weekend!" The general noise meant that Danny's sigh also went unnoticed. 

"I have to go watch a fucking monkey and write about it. I don't know either Sam, this is some batshit crazy stuff."

"Danny, your life just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Tucker chuckled. Danny glared at him.

"Just for that, I'm making you come with me. There's no way I'm sitting in a zoo by myself all night."

"You're going to pull the 'we convinced you to walk into the gate to hell" card again if I say no, aren't you?" Tucker sighed. 

"Yup," Danny smirked. His eyes flashed a bright unintentional green for only a moment, and his entire expression screamed 'mischievous'. Sam rolled her eyes. 

"Rip to you two but I'm different." She pulled her back pack higher onto her shoulders and attempted to subtly speed up, hoping she wouldn't also get dragged into this disaster. 

"Nope. Nuh-uh. Unacceptable." Danny tsked. Sam groaned and reluctantly slowed back down. 

"Well, you've at least have to convince me. Go on, come up with one good reason why I should drop all my plans to watch you two chuckle fucks dick around at a zoo."

"So you can, I don't know, make sure the monkey is being treated properly or something? You can help me with some research and then make sure his enclosure is acceptable. Boom, I get a passing grade and you get to a right another Animal Rights Activists blog post."

"Ugh, of course you would manage to weaponize my love of animals," Sam whined. Tucker and Danny just continued to stare at her pleadingly.

"Please?" Danny pouted. Sam continued to groan. 

" _ Fine! _ But you owe me." 

* * *

The gorilla blinked. 

Danny picked up a pencil. 

The gorilla stared at them. 

Danny out the pencil back down. 

The gorilla opened its mouth. 

Danny picked the pencil back up.

The gorilla yawned. 

Danny sighed and made a note. 

The gorilla closed it eyes. 

Danny leaned forward. 

The gorilla was asleep. 

And sighed, and blue mist fell from his lips. 

And crash sounded from outside the enclosure. 

" _ Fuck,"  _ Danny said emphatically. "Fuck this. Seriously, fuck everything aboutat this."

"Go fight the ghost, we'll let you know if the monkey does anything interesting," Sam waved. Danny sent her a thankful smile. 

"I'll try to make this quick," he promised. Then muttering a small "Going ghost" under his breath, he summoned the glowing white rings to appear around his body, allowing the feeling that was akin to dripping ectoplasm to spread over his body until there stood someone unrecognizable to the person who has previously been standing in his place. 

"Don't worry about it, it doesn't seem like it's planning on doing anything any time soon," Tucker snorted. 

Before Danny could reply, the ghost was suddenly bursting open the door, which Danny vaguely realized was rather dramatic for a creature that was capable of walking through walls. He had no time to think of much else however, before he was being picked up by the shirt collar and was forcefully brought nearly nose to nose with a large assumedly male ghost, wearing what looked like the weirdest cyberpunk hunter outfit he had ever seen.

“Halfa!” He cheered. “At long last fate has seen fit to allow me your pelt, and by mere chance!”   
“Uh, that’s, um, cool.” Danny stuttered. “Look, Mr. Ghost Dude, if you want some time in the living realm for your obsession, we can work that out, but you have to put me down first.”

“ANd whyever would I do that, Halfa?” Danny registered the strange word that the ghost had used twice now, and felt himself pushed further into the arm, so he now had a good view of the ghost triumphantly raising him over his head.

And of Tucker, sneaking up on the ghost from behind, holding the Ghost Grabber. Unfortunately, it seemed this ghost was too smart for that. The ghost grabber was suddenly ripped from his hands, a ripple in the air and the soft green glow surrounding the weapon being the only indication that any sort of other worldly power had been used 

“You think I have no experienced prey trying to become a predator before?” He laughed. “I will not allow myself to be defeated so easily halfa!”

“Cool, not defeated easily, got it. Hey, any chance you’ll tell me what the fresh funky hell ‘halfa’ means?”

“You do not know?” The ghost seemed almost confused now. “I guess you would not. It is the world for people like you. Half ghost and half human.”

“There are more like me?” Danny gasped. Sam and Tucker paused in their scrambling for a plan and or weapon below him.

The ghost smiled, toothy and so large it looked like it would have been his jaw ache had he been alive and unable to alter his form to prevent minor issues like that. .

“Now halfa,” he raised an arm, which Danny realized now realized was actually a canon. “Prepare to meet your full death. As I, Skulker, greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone finally complete my collection.” 

The canon glowed. Danny flinched, attempting to push away, put the grip on his jumpsuit reamined firm. Why did he have to transform? He could have just slipped out of his shirt but no, now he was going to be fried-

“Wait!” Sam called. 

Everyone turned to her, and Skulker, probably unconsciously, lowered his weapon. 

“Can you really call yourself a good hunter if you just kill your prey without giving it a chance?” She continued.

“What do you mean, human?” He asked. “I am not required to give my prey a fleeting hope for life. That would be cruel,” he smiled again, and Danny was starting to wonder if this guy knew what smiling meant.

“Well, usually hunters work hard to trap their kills. You said you found him by coincidence, yeah? I’m assuming you were here for the monkey? Well, he’s currently already trapped, and you never D- our friend a chance to defend himself.”

“That… is correct,” Skulker admitted. The canon was resting at his side now, and he had a thoughtful look on his face. “Well, I suppose you have a point.”

“So are you going to… let me go?” Danny asked hopefully.

“I will give you a chance, halfa,” Skulker sniffed. “I will be back for you soon, and this time I will not be willing to allow you a third chance. Make peace with your life.”

He stormed back through the destroyed doorway, and Danny dropped to the ground roughly. His friends immediately rushed over to him. 

"Danny!" Sam called. She flung his arm over her shoulders and, with the help of Tucker, moved him into a standing position. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but I am really not looking forward to the next time I have to fight that guy," he said. 

"Maybe next time try actually fighting?" Tucker suggested.

"I didn't want to trash the zoo! The ape could have gotten hurt."

"Speaking of," Sam interrupted. "I think we've gotten about all the information we can. Lancer can't fault you just because you watched the most boring monkey on earth. Besides, maybe you can write about how being in captivity is obviously detrimental to his health."

"Yeah, I'll figure something out this weekend." 

Danny flinched as he put pressure on the leg he had collapsed on, and stepped outside of his friend's support. He whispered "Going alive" to himself as the white rings appeared, changing his jumpsuit into his normal jeans and space t-shirt and changing his hair and eye color back to normal. He blinked at the familiar yet odd feeling of having his heartbeat suddenly restart and having blood start pumping through his veins once again, and turned back to his friends.

"Shall we? Nasty Burger on me tonight?"

"It's 2 am," Sam snorted.

"So? Its 24/7 and they have your gross soggy salads to compliment our gross greasy burgers. Let's go be normal irresponsible teenagers."

"Can I spray paint something?"

"Only if it has a positive message, Tucker."

"Please don't encourage his weird crime streak, Sam."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I'm going to write this to improve at fight scenes!  
Me: *writes 2,800 word long chapter with like. 20 words of fighting.*  
Me: oop
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed and that you can overlook my tardiness. I was hella busy rip. I'm doing some random inktober drabbles as well as having a bunch of other stuff to do, so updates will probably continue to be sporadic until I have time to write a few extra chapters, which won't be for a while rip  
Comments are lit if u dont mind uwu

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! I actually wrote this first chapter like over a hear ago and never got around to continuing? Hopefully that will change now!  
School starts in two days and I'm taking a lot of advanced classes so I wont be super frequent but I won't abandon this without telling you guys!  
*numbers on voltage not really accurate, just kind bullshit. The current is more of a problem than the voltage, but I was too lazy to do all the research to double check numbers*


End file.
